Saturday, 25 April 2009

Its one of those weeks when your mind is really sluggish and even the 'C' of creativity has abandoned you. You can actually guess that from the title of this post as to how bad my situation is.

There also the guilt of not updating your blog hanging on your head. So my blogging pals be dears and tolerate this post of mine :). I racked my brains to bring out a funny post or even a serious one for that matter but, words are eluding me.

Work wise life has been quite hectic for the past few weeks. For those who don't know me personally. I am doing 2 part time jobs in a week. At both places I work in accounts (Least of preferred job profiles by me). Though I had definitely worked longer hours in India but, the longer hours included gossiping with colleagues, catching up with friends on chat/phone and working as well. So, the stress of work did not make so much of an impact.Whereas here my nose is to the grind for 7.5 hours of the day.

At one job I am the only employee so, interaction with another human being throughout the day is just limited to my boss who pops in to office for just a couple of hours. At the other job I do have colleagues but all of them sit one floor above me and are in sales and so are always on the phone. There goes my gossiping out of the window. With nothing to break the monotony of the job, it becomes quite difficult sometimes to get away from the pressures at work.

I miss the gossiping and general yakking sessions with colleagues when I was in India. They provided so much of fun and distraction. The day passed off quickly and I never had to keep glancing at the watch to see when the day would end.

P.S.: Sorry guys for being such a drag in this post. Hopefully I will bounce back soon.

Monday, 13 April 2009

There are times in your life when each one of us wanted to avoid certain category of people. We have actually taken efforts to run away from them and disappear. Here are a few people whom most of us tend to avoid.

1) MLM (Multi level Marketing) or the AMWAY person : I have been hounded by these people for so long, I became a pro at avoiding them really well. They are mostly your friends or acquaintances at one point of time.

Once they join any MLM company with dreams of getting rich in a jiffy, there persona completely changes. Supercharged with the idea of spreading the riches around, they start roping in all the people they have ever met in their life with a wild frenzy to climb the MLM ladder.

The poor suckers who get temporary blindness with rupee signs flashing in their eyes fall for it really hard. Whereas cynical and jaded people like 'yours truly' run as fast they can.

When I was in college, this mad wave of people joining the company 'Amway' suddenly attacked my city. My neighbours, my cousin and many friends became members and tried all their wily tactics to make me a member. I was looked down upon by many as a brainless critter who is running away from prosperity. I thank God that I did not join the bandwagon.

2) Insurance Salesman: Again, this category can be made up of friends but they are mainly people you know in passing or are distant relatives.

They are like a dog with a bone. They will literally make your life a living hell. Since you know them, you have to entertain their calls and visits and sit through painful and descriptive narration of the Insurance Policies. How the policy is beneficial to your well being will be reiterated to you again and again.

To make them go away you have to either take a policy which is an expensive affair or desperately search for someone who is thinking of taking up a policy and quickly shifting the spotlight to the victim you have searched.

3) Credit Card Salesman: These people are like octopus. They will use their tentacles to catch their prey and literally squeeze life out of them. I am very cautious with such people. With their slick tongues and their glittering eyes they will make you dream many a dreams and that too with just a swish of the card. They will make shopping sound like a dream come true and will completely forget to highlight the most important aspect of paying up.

Many a sucker has fallen for there shenanigans and have been woken up rudely from their dreams when the monthly bill arrived by post.

4) The complainer : These people are never satisfied in life. They are always waiting for that perfect life to happen. To feel good all they do is complain. Also, they are unhappy with other people's success. Comparing assets and bank balances is one of their favourite hobbies.

All of us meet this type at least once in our life. More than not they are related quite closely to us and some are even friends who never showed their true colours in the beginning of friendship. It is difficult to avoid such people so the best way to deal with them is to stuff your ears with cotton, put on a sad face and nod your head after every few minutes and keep saying 'Yes, I understand.

5) The Mr. Know it all : The name says it all. There is not a topic on earth on which they cannot speak on. They have an opinion on everything whether they actually know anything about the subject or not.

They are opinionated and bombastic and will never leave an opportunity to show you what a nincompoop you are. You just cannot have an opinion and even if you do have one or even are an expert in that area your word does not hold any meaning. They can actually harm our self esteem.

There are milder version of such people all around us. They can be usually found in the position of our bosses. But, if you meet the original specimen all you should do is, run for your life like a rabid dog is after you.

It is not possible to avoid all these people. Some of them are in your social circle whom you do meet in everyday life. You need to be able to master the art of tackling these personalities with practice and patience. Though sometimes you do wish that 'Houdini' could have taught you the disappearing act.

Thursday, 9 April 2009

I really pity today's generation of kids who really don't know what its like to go out and play with kids your own age.

They lack social skills and most of them are either glued to the 'Idiot Box' or the computer to even explore their surroundings or discover new games.

Oh this not a bitchy post but just an observation. I was chatting with my cousin and suddenly remembered the weird games we invented and had a gala time when we were growing up together.

I grew up with a younger cousin(X) and a sister (Y) just a year older than me. My eldest sis (Z) is quite a bit older so was never interested in what we were up to.

'Y' was a mature and disciplined kid for her age and she expected her wayward and curious sibling (Moi) and her unruly cousin 'X' to behave and fall in line. She was a enthusiastic participant in our games in the beginning but eventually gave up when she saw that we were getting more innovative and adventurous in our games.

These are a few games we played :

1) Dead Dog : You need a bed sheet, a willing dead dog and two people to pull the sheet. The technique is simple. We took turns to play the much coveted role of 'Dead Dog' and the other two would be pulling the dead dog through the house. Basically being the dead dog was the best deal. You got a free joyride in spite of being labelled a stinky dead animal. This game was discovered when we saw Muncipality workers in our city piling up dead dogs on a blanket and dragging them to be carried away. I know our minds were really a wealth of imagination.

2) Dark Room: This was a favourite game in summers when it was scorching outside and not possible to play in the sun.

You cover all the windows of a room with dark curtains to block any light coming in and make the room pitch dark . One person will try searching for the others who are hiding in the same room. It so much fun when no one can see anyone.

3) Burrowing : This was a bane for our mother. She used to send us to play dressed neat and tidy and we came back looking like street urchins.The ingredients required are a big mound of sand and eager children who want to burrow in the sand.The lane we grew up in (mysteriously) always had a big mound of sand throughout the year. Looking back I think it must be a kindly neighbour who knew how precious the sand pile was for us kids. The game was to dig a big hole in the sand and then sit in it and cover yourself up completely with sand.

4) Mudslides : We never needed any equipment to have fun. Whatever was available suited us just fine.Our House was getting some repairs so the workers had dug up mud at the back of our house and had dumped it in our front yard. The mud pile was nearly 6 feet high. Added to that, it was the monsoon season so the mud was quite slick and wet. Here it was, a readymade slide for us. We used to slide down whooping with joy. This was not only for us but the entire klan of kids from our neighbourhood. I can only imagine the scrubbing we must have got from my mother. Poor Mom.

5) Make your own swimming pool : This was a special favourite of my cousin 'X' and me. In the monsoon we used to go up on the terrace and block all the outlets on the terrace so that we could collect water in the torrential downpour. Once the water was upto our knees it was good enough for a swim.This game of ours went on for a couple of years and was immediately banned by my parents when they discovered the mystery behind the leaky roof.

Childhood was such a wondrous time for me. I never needed any games to entertain myself. Anything and everything could be used to play with. A pile of rocks, a length of clothes line or even a 'Guavava ' tree were used to invent new games.

I never needed a computer, a PS2 or game CD's to stir my imagination. I am sure most of us were more interested in waiting for play time with friends from our neighbourhood. The eager wait to come from school and just gather all friends and start a game of Hide n' Seek, waiting for the summer holidays to begin and the thrill of learning to master a new game was all the head rush we needed.

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

This post has got nothing to do with the country China. Its actually a 'kvetch' disguised as a Blog post.

Last weekend, 'A' and I were invited to a Indian Couples place for dinner. I had never met them and 'A' just knew the hubby in passing. Living in Lancaster we are always dying for a social get together as we don't know many people in this town.

All excited at the prospect of meeting someone from India and making new friends, I took some extra efforts while getting ready (not the usual running a comb and putting a spot of lipstick). Also bought a nice Dessert as a gift for the couple. We reached their place and were welcomed inside and settled down. The conversation was quite pleasant and things were just nice and cozy.

We chatted for some time and were offered drinks. When the drinks arrived I was a bit surprised to see that we were served in plastic glasses. Not the 'reusable' ones but 'use and throw' types.

I thought O.K. maybe they don't have glasses. Then snacks were served and to my horror they were in disposable paper bowls along with SURPRISE !!! plastic spoons.

After that my expectations for a nice warm dinner took a real beating when,microwaved pizza along with limp oily potato wedges was offered as dinner on Paper plates. This was followed by Ice cream for dessert.

I had the sudden desire to say' Beam me (up) home Scottie, there is no intelligent life here'.

I can understand that people have affinity to paper and plastic but not when you invite someone for dinner. Also, it was not a 10 year old's birthday party.

I wonder what they use everyday to eat food??? Paper Plates or real china??